The Process Begins: MacBook Air Justification

I spend most of my time working from home, and that means that I’m in front of my desk hammering away on my 15-inch MacBook Pro. I’ve often got 5-10 programs running simultaneously, which not only heats up my CPU, but causes the fans to run pretty heavy as well. It’s not a big deal because it’s mounted on a stand, but it is something that prevents me from going mobile with the thing. I don’t take it into the living room to work because after 20 minutes my lap is so hot that I wonder if I’ll ever be able to reproduce again.

I’m also always trying to be more productive, and one thing that constantly distracts me is television. We have stacks of shows on our DVR, and if I get sucked into watching one of them, I find myself losing a few hours of time to the tube. As a result, I’ve been debating getting a TV for my office (or moving one from another room) and then going from there. I originally was going to use a TV that I received from a friend, but that hasn’t worked out so well.

So after doing some math, I realized that putting a new TV in my office would cost at least a grand – cost of the TV, new DirecTV receiver, installation, etc – which isn’t very cool. So it looked like I needed to find another option.

Just like that, I was able to justify buying a new MacBook Air. The cost would be about the same, but I could use that in my living room without fear of burning my lap, and I could get most of my lighter work done while watching the television. I’d also have a lighter computer to take to the office, because I don’t need the full horsepower of my MBP every day, just access to my iDisk or Dropbox account and I’m good. No reason to run Adobe CS5 on the machine, just iWork and some e-mail.

As my wife likes to say, I can justify anything, particularly with an electronics purchase. But fact is, my iPad can’t do enough heavy lifting for me to really get things done, and my MacBook Pro gets so hot that it’s difficult to use unless it’s on a work surface. I’ve even debated ditching the MBP for a Mac Pro (probably an older model) and then having the Air for mobile use.

Now granted, most likely none of these things will happen, because they’re all expensive propositions. But it’s nice to dream sometimes, even if it’s in technicolor.

Comments

I absolutely agree with this analysis. Also consider that right now, the only way to get 1440×900 resolution on a Mac portable is to either buy a 15″ Mac Pro or the 13″ MB Air. I simply don’t do anything that requires either a built-in DVD drive or a discrete graphics processor. I have a pair of fast, external DVD drives connected to a USB hub for the times I need to burn or read DVDs. What I do need is more display resolution vs. the 1280×800 resolution on my MacBooks.

Thus, the “value” equation for someone like me points directly at the 13″ MB Air. Given that, I feel confident in saying that within 6 months, the 13″ MB Pro will have 1440×900 resolution and the default (not optional) resolution on the 15″ MB Pro will be 1680×1050. Apple needs a way to further distance the 13″ MB Pro from the 13″ White MB. One of the ways to do that is to increase the display resolution of the Pro. Just yesterday, Apple put a big new bunch of reconditioned MB’s and MB Pros on sale. That usually means an update to those products within a few months.